Review: God Save the Queen by Kate Locke

"Mothers know to keep their children at home after dark, lest they go missing, fated to end up as goblin food-or worse; a goblin slave." pg 8

God Save the Queen takes place in a alternative reality United Kingdom where Queen Victoria still rules after 175 years because of something called the Prometheus protein which mutated from the bubonic plague. It's a place where women still dress in long gowns and corsets because the Victorian age never faded away.

The plague created vampirism in England and Lycanthropy in Scotland which lead to the aristocratic society and cross breeding between aristos and humans. It also created another species, the Goblins, who are part vampire and part werewolf and a danger to both. They are probably more of a threat to humans because they love human flesh.

It's a world where Hitler was never a threat to the world, and the US and Canada merged together to keep the virus out of their populations. It's a world filled with steampunk instruments from flying machines, to cylinders where music and movies are stored. It's a world that is still unsettled after the Great Insurrection of 1932 by humans wanting to rid the world of these supernatural beings.

Our main protagonist is 22-year old Alexandria (Xandra) Vardan who is part human and part vampire. Born from a vampire father and a courtesan mother, she serves in the Royal Guard protecting the aristocrats from humans. Xandra isn't like other half breeds however, and that is what makes her stronger, faster, and more tempted for anger issues.

Xandra's world is forever changed when it appears her younger troubled sister Dede has turned up dead and someone she has relied on for 12 years, appears to be the main culprit behind the halfies disappearances.

Failing to believe anything she is told after clues tell her otherwise, she is lured into a different world where she meets the Alpha of the UK wolves, Vex MacLaughlin, and a sister she never knew she had. She discovers that her own heritage was hidden away from her by medications and lies thanks to her own mother and father manipulations.

God Save the Queen was an interesting story for me. I always worry about the world building when it comes to first books in a series. There seems to be too much information dump and therefore it takes away from the storyline. This one had is starts and stops yet it finished on a high note. I'm definitely looking forward to The Queen is Dead (February 2013).

I enjoyed the romance between Xandra and Vex. It wasn't just thrust onto the reader. It took time, yet not too much time where the reader would ask the heroine what her beef was with this sexy as hell man who steals her heart and opens her eyes to the world around her.

I enjoyed Xandra as well. She's a tough character, with just enough emotional flaws, namely the fact that she had no clue why she was different from others. I also loved her digging and pushing and caring for her younger sister Dede even after she betrays her own country and distorts her disappearance in order to gain access to the son she was forced to leave behind.

A plus for me was the author's introduction to the world that she's created. You normally don't see that sort of thing from settled authors. Thank you!

Thank you goes out to Orbit for sharing this book with me! Expected publication: July 3rd 2012 by Orbit

Author - Kate Locke
Title - God Save the Queen
Publisher - Orbit
Releases - July 3, 2012